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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
OK,
So before you call Israel illegitimate, you must first list every state that also is illegitimate and state exactly why.
And before you demand a boycott against Israel, you must explain why it deserves to be boycotted, and also why other states deserve to be boycotted, and why, broken down state-by-state.
OK, no problem.
The BDS movement will get back to you in 20 years, after properly studying each of the world's states and their histories. (Assuming that Palestinians will continue to have the leisure time, electricity, and computer resources to do this research).
Funny how the civil rights movement never was asked to go through this massive research undertaking.
But that's OK!
See you in 20 years, and sorry for bothering you with all that BDS talk without doing this important research first.
Yeah, well, the end of slavery hurt the White Plantation Owners' identity a lot!
Who cares?
You are SUPPOSED to abolish apartheid. You are SUPPOSED to boycott apartheid. You are supposed to cut all ties with apartheid.
If that makes Gordis weep over his lost privilege, his "right" to a plantation in occupied Palestine -- who cares?
"Another Federal Judge—Another Billboard Lawsuit":
at: link to uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com
It reports an Associated Press story about a bus advertisement which would say "Boycott 'Israel', Boycott Apartheid"
The proposed ad would look like this:
link to tinyurl.com
You are right - many many Arab students support the boycott of Israel, in the privacy of their own head. In the privacy of their own quiet conversations with close friends and family.
That does not count for anything.
You refer to videos of Michigan students marching for boycott -- I wish.
No, they had tape on their mouths and they were silently marching out of an IDF presentation.
Nice, but it's not BDS.
OK.
Let's accept the premise that there are "many Arab students who speak out and do it quite well".
I don't see them in any public sphere demanding the boycott of Israel.
This is proof that they have resigned themselves to read nice blogs like Mondoweiss, attend nice conferences, meet nice people like yourself, graduate from college, raise families, and so pass their lives under the radar.
After many years of watching the so-called BDS community, I am afraid that is the outer limit of their aspirations.
They want the company and safety of their friends and family.
They do not, repeat, do not want to march for any action against Israel because they fear it will destroy their future academic and career prospects, and put them "on a list."
They also do not want to associate with anyone who openly demands any action against Israel, for the same reasons.
This is the cold truth. This puts BDS in the hands of a few non-Arabs who have an extremely limited ability to mobilize anyone, and who are happy with very limited forms of BDS.
Imagine if the entire civil rights and Black Power movement consisted of white liberals. That would be pretty weak, wouldn't it?
That is the current state of the BDS movement.
Marc,
We are only having this discussion because Arab students have been silenced. They fear that if they speak publicly to oppose Israel, boycott Israel, abolish Israel, they will not be greeted as human rights activists, the way Dr. Martin Luther King is greeted today.
They fear that they will be greeted as King was greeted in 1968: shunned by the national media and then gunned down.
These fears are way overblown by Arab students. However, they are not coming out until they feel safe. That may be never.
Too bad. Arab students have the motivation, creativity, and energy to liberate Palestine, and to wake up American campuses too.
When Rachel was murdered, the Wayne State University Student Council passed a resolution demanding total divestment against Israel.
Today, who will be the first campus to do the same?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text of Wayne State University’s Student Council Divestment Resolution:
Approved on April 17, 2003,
Detroit, Michigan.
“WHEREAS, the Student Council of Wayne State University has grave misgivings about financing violent ethnic cleansing, racially directed against millions of occupied Palestinian civilians, who are both innocent and helpless,
“WHEREAS, those millions of Palestinians suffer long-term malnutrition, are surrounded by Israeli army bulldozers, tanks, soldiers, and by jet bombers, all of which have killed thousands of occupied Palestinians,
“WHEREAS, on Sunday, March 16, 2003, an American college student, Rachel Corrie, was killed in plain sight, while dressed in bright orange, while waving, and while shouting at an Israeli Army bulldozer through a megaphone, by that same Israeli Army bulldozer, in the Occupied Gaza Strip,
“WHEREAS, that Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over twice,
“WHEREAS, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged us all to divest from Israel due to its violent and humiliating apartheid policies,
“WHEREAS, Israel was a long-time, close ally of White Apartheid South Africa,
“WHEREAS, the Wayne State University Board of Governors (“the Board”) has knowledge of University investments, including what governments our University is paying taxes to by means of investment, and has the authority to seek such information from its fund managers,
“THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED, that we ask the Board to immediately divest (dis-invest) our university from Israel,
“THEREFORE IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Board for a report this semester, on its progress in divesting the University from its investments in Israel, including divestment from all companies doing business in Israel, and divestment from all stocks and pension funds which include those companies.”
American university classes begin next week.
We will see BDS movements on those campuses when?
I have witnessed over 10 years of "strategizing for divestment", "researching for divestment", and conferences to strategize and research and plan for divestment.
This week, this month, I would appreciate seeing actual demands made on campuses for divestment from Israel, for boycott against Israel.
Is there any doubt that Israel is a Nazi society? Even if an Arab is in the process of being lynched under their noses, the Israeli police know they can turn their backs with impunity.
Nazi societies deserve to be boycotted.
Dear YoungMassJew:
True, it's like during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements... the role of white supremacy was so pervasive, and the lack of whites demanding Black liberation was so miniscule, that whites were identified with repression.
That's no reason to stop pushing for liberation.
You can decide for yourself how much time to devote to making the distinctions that you're trying to make.
I hope someone is organizing the campuses in Massachusetts for a campaign to boycott Israel this Fall. That would do a lot to protect 11 million Palestinians from genocide, and to protect Iran and Lebanon from being bombed by Israel. It seems to me that this kind of boycott is a most pressing task.
OK, Palestine is being genocided.
Arab life is being genocided, by the millions, in our lifetime.
And you're worried about... anti-Semites who have zero political power?
Fine, if they had any power at all, they'd be a danger. But since you were born, they have had zero power.
Your worry reminds me of 1960's Zionists who feared that Black revolutionaries were "anti-Semitic" or "anti-white".
My God, Black people had gone through a more thorough genocide than you could ever imagine, for centuries, on multiple continents. From the Congo to Mississippi to Duluth, Black people were lynched. Sometimes in the millions, they were lynched and mocked in front of their children and grandchildren.
And that is the kind of murder and humiliation faced by millions of Palestinians every day.
And your worry is... anti-Semitism?
Great. Thanks, Divest.
The best way to prove we're serious is to start pushing divestment resolutions immediately, the first week of school.
Yes, that is what the State of Israel is. A Nazi state.
Hence the boycott.
Djinn:
I am not done slagging, nor am I done "trolling" (yes, I have discovered that is the preferred term for those who demand total boycott against Israel).
Annie has done her best. She has pushed for a boycott of one company that deals with Israel. That is her vision, and she has stood up for it publicly.
If more people did that, it would be better -- especially if it were reported on the Mondoweiss front pages so you and I would know about it.
My vision may seem impractical to you and to Annie, but here it is: to demand total boycott of all products from Israel -- exactly as was done to Apartheid South Africa. This implies a far higher level of shunning and scorn against Israel.
Total boycott implies a higher level of self-confidence among BDS activists, too. If any Zionists now tell me that means I must rip my computer out of the wall, let me answer them in advance: No, not until your state is abolished.
In fact, I have done as Djinn says: I have demanded total boycott against Israel as publicly as I can. Virtually no one (including me) is actually reported as demanding a total boycott against Israel, so how would you know such an option even exists?
Boycott Israel, even if they call you a troll.
Annie,
Thank you. I look forward to seeing your BDS activism on the big screen. And I apologize for not knowing that you are actually a public BDS activist! I had thought there were none.
I will take your advice and submit a little BDS activism item to Phil and Adam, to encourage the students.
It's great that you and Allison spoke for BDS against a company, and that 100 people witnessed it.
Please front-page the media clip, or at least YouTube footage, so that students will know somebody really is pushing for BDS.
Yes, you work very hard. You run the best Palestine resource available for BDS activists to use.
Just one problem: No public BDS activists!
Since you know how important BDS is, and since you are 1000% better protected than any Arab American who opens their mouth in protest, it's incumbent on you to set an example and push for BDS.
I mean push BDS out in public, at city councils and university governments, where the media will pick up the story.
You fail to do that, not because you're busy.
It's because you simply fear to go out there and demand any action against Israel. All you can do is gripe: it's easier, but it helps much less than a BDS campaign would help.
I will never trust the so-called BDS movement in the United States. For so many years, they have been reclining and waiting for someone ELSE to call for BDS in public, with protest signs and marches.
Now the most battered Palestinians on Earth, in Gaza, are demanding BDS, for your viewing pleasure.
Are you proud that Gazans are doing the hard work for you? Gazans. They hardly have water to drink.
And you American so-called "BDS-ers" STILL won't march on your city council, your student government, or anywhere else to just demand a total boycott against Israel.
Shame on you for your public inaction. You American BDS types are acutely aware that a vocal BDS movement would totally change this country and the world.
Yet you hide and gripe privately about the Lobby, and imagine yourself an "activist".
You fear the Lobby so badly that you will never stand up in public and say "Boycott Israel". A great excuse to hide out forever-- the Lobby.
Shame on you for your inaction.
So boycotting Israel is "fringe" and unnecessary?
The "middle ground" of the British parliament is ready to liberate Palestine, so we can sit back and relax?
Ha.
Boycott Israel -- and DON'T wait for Parliament to liberate Palestine. They will do no such thing.
And you, Annie, are a fine reporter. I expect more from Mondoweiss than good reporting.
You have acutely reported on the Zionist war fever against Iran and against the entire Arab world. The reader can easily picture Ros-Lehtinen and Berman serving as Wartime Junta Leaders, complete with sunglasses and military fatigues.
But is that all we get from Mondoweiss? Acute analysis of the obvious?
Who will finally march for a total boycott against Israel?
Who? And where?
There is a lot of hot air spoken about "BDS", but virtually no visible campaigns for BDS.
Why?
Are you having fun pretending to complain about Zionists, while enjoying the perks of Zionist supremacy?
I will believe your complaints about Zionism when I see you in New York City Council demanding boycott against Israel.
I will believe your complaints when I see you in the NYU student government demanding a boycott against Israel.
These are two very easy places for you to visit with your friends-- if you have any friends willing to accompany you.
But until you are visibly demanding action against Israel, this thing you call BDS, I believe you are just having fun posing as an anti-Zionist.
Act like an anti-Zionist and demand boycott of Israel.
Phil, you could stroll into the New York City Council and tell them this. Then you could demand a city resolution to totally boycott everything from Israel.
You would not have to stand alone, but if you did, fine. You would still be showing some resistance in the news media, which would be sitting there waiting, cameras in hand.
That would be a huge encouragement to many thousands of Arab American students on hundreds of campuses, waiting until it's safe for them to do the same.
To this all-star cast of 55:
Your initiative would have been a welcome statement in 1964, when Malcolm was already denouncing Zionist violence and land-theft.
But you 55 highly seasoned intellectuals can't even voice a demand to boycott Israel!
You just commiserate with Palestinians. Then you quickly go out of your way to hunt for Jewish partners to validate you in your never-ending commiseration process. That could take a long, LONG time.
You 55 signers include the most keenly attuned brains in this sluggish Ku Klux Klan Republic. And that is not much of a compliment.
You include the most highly aware, acute participants and chroniclers of many anti-racist struggles. So I expect much more from you. I expect action. I expect vivid BDS demands from you, on your campuses and in your journals.
Too see how many miles BACKWARD you have come, look at this 1970 full-page ad in the New York Times:
link to a2vigil.org
It's entitled "An Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support of the Zionist Government of Israel".
It ran in the Times on November 1, 1970.
Near the end, the ad says: "We demand that all military aid or assistance of any kind to Israel must stop."
Why can't you pronounce those words today, after all the massacres Israel has committed?
Come on, guys.
A good USACBI letter by good people.
Now...
...Each of them should lead a delegation (even if must be a delegation of one person) to their university's student government, and demand a resolution supporting total boycott by their university against Israel.
Palestinian life is worth that much of an effort -- and it would be no effort at all. A quick walk across your own campus, a five-minute speech at your student government, long enough to be recorded and put on YouTube.
You could change American campuses with that one hour of effort.
A very welcome victory for boycott!
Also see today's CounterPunch, "Boycotting Apartheid Israel", at link to counterpunch.org
Boycott - Boycott - Boycott.
An unjust state really should be boycotted with the aim of abolition. Like Apartheid South Africa was abolished.
See today's CounterPunch article,"Boycotting Apartheid Israel", at:
link to counterpunch.org
Mondoweiss might want to consider front-paging the article to stimulate discussion.
The first successful divestment resolution, at any student government, predates the 7-year history of the national BDS movement.
It was a resolution for total divestment against Israel, approved by the Wayne State University Student Council on April 17, 2003:
link to tinyurl.com
It is a textbook example of how asking for maximum divestment will get you maximum clarity.
Uh-oh.
You know, my beef with Mondoweiss (our gracious host) is that they seem to assume Zionist omnipotence, which is a paralyzing assumption.
How the hell can you demand boycott if the Zionists have put you "on a list", are tapping your phone, and are ready to fire a drone at your head the moment you open your mouth?
Once you assume that kind of Zionist omnipotence, then you assume the impossibility of any public BDS campaign. You just hide behind a pseudonym and gripe on the Internet about "Jews". That is no kind of life.
Better to march for total boycott of Israel, that racist bastard of a state.
We are talking about the liberation of Palestinians from a pretty standard colonial tyranny, like Kenya used to be. With lots of natives behind barbed wire and dead, as Kenyans used to be.
Religion has nothing to do with it. Nothing. Don't let anyone divert you into endless arguments about religion or ethnicity.
When you boycott Israel, you are boycotting the last colonial apartheid state. Period.
And that's a good thing!
This is an exquisite literary piece by a guy who's currently being dragged through hell in a drumhead tribunal.
I heard him speak twice and he was very clear and engaging.
Now for my quibbles about the content:
1. The problem with two states is that one of them ("Israel") will be the same nuclear hair-trigger assassination state that is has been since the 1960's. To be blunt, a Big Israel or a Little Israel will keep on invading and bombing Arabs until there are no more Arabs.
2. It's good that Ellis, Weiss, etc. are for Palestinian human rights, and that they say nice things about BDS. However, the BDS movement has to break out of its incubator and onto the front pages of the nation before it can get Palestine freed.
3. That means a nationwide movement of Arab American college kids doing exactly what the Black Power movement did: assert their rights in the most massive and undeniable way, especially with big marches on the centers of power, demanding total boycott against Israel.
Until then, we are in this comfortable incubator called "BDS", an acronym that means nothing to 99% of this country.
Total boycott is better.
It doesn't matter what Finkelstein says.
What matters is when thousands of Arab American students start marching for total boycott, total divestment against Israel.
Until then, nothing happens because no determined group of people cares to make it happen.
There were always white liberals asking for better treatment for Black people. Yet they had zero weight until finally thousands of Black people openly marched and demanded their rights in 1963.
Bazinga! That's when "impossible" civil rights bills were suddenly passed and enforced.
Who cares what Finkelstein thinks or says?
Right now, we have a ten-year campaign for BDS that has only occasionally been led by Palestinians, only occasionally led by Arabs at all.
The white "progressive" types have hyped themselves up on fear of Zionists, so they tip-toe agonizingly around total boycott of Israel.
Arabs are simply terrified of the Zionists, and can almost never bring themselves to voice their righteous rejection of the Zionist state.
So who is willing to march into public forums and demand total BDS against Israel?
Who?
Exactly, Roya.
I think that Annie sees the wisdom of launching boycott campaigns... in many City Councils, and in many student governments.
So I hope she will keep her promise to front-page the City Council boycott-Israel videos.
I hope she will also front-page the Wayne State divestment victory article. For the same reason.
Annie:
OK, here is a City Council campaign for divestment from Israel that you can front-page, as you have promised. Two videos:
1. "Boycotting 'Israel' to Death -- at Ann Arbor City Council", on YouTube at:
link to youtube.com
---------------------------------------
2. "Ann Arbor City Council -- Gag Rule attempted, following campaign for sanctions against Israel", on YouTube at:
link to youtube.com
---------------------------------------
There are thousands of other City Councils where you can try the same thing.
Do it your way-- but do it.
Here is a total divestment resolution which was actually approved by the Wayne State University Student Council.
It predates the Palestinian peoples' call for BDS, and remains a historic example for future student governments--
link to 4.bp.blogspot.com
I hope you will front-page it as a good example for divestment activists. Being timid gets you nowhere.
Total divestment, and total boycott, make a clear statement that can't be misinterpreted.
I have practiced what I preached. I have demanded resolutions to totally boycott israel many many times, in more than one city council, and in at least two student governments.
When I ask others to do the same-- with me or without me-- I get a wide range of responses, ranging from warm sympathy to cold hostility. But all of those responses boil down to a simple "no".
I can't complain too much about Mondoweiss, as you provide good fuel for divestment activists.
The problem is that there are virtually no activists who will demand divestment against israel. There are many readers and no do-ers.
The best divestment activists will beg you to shut up until they manage to craft a perfect divestment "strategy" -- which never happens. Ever.
What will it take before Mondoweiss simply marches into the New York city council to demand divestment against Israel?
Would that really be so hard?
If not stopped, Israel will try to incinerate Palestine and Iran too:
"The blood of 80 million Iranians"
By Blaine Coleman
ARAB AMERICAN NEWS
June 30, 2012
At: link to arabamericannews.com
You should say what you mean. If you mean "Boycott Israel" -- say it. I do.
If you mean to say God Bless America, as it shreds the Middle East -- well, I guess the billboard flag did say that, didn't it?
Yuck.
It was a victory to have one full week of billboards saying to spend our money at home, not on the Israeli military.
But the American flag (on that billboard) means only death to 24 million Iraqis, to over 20 million Afghans, and to countless other victims of Americanism around the world.
Next time just say what you mean -- unless you really mean to snap to attention whenever the U.S. military calls you to another adventure in genocide.
Israel killed this child because there is nothing to stop them. There is not a single audible or visible movement to boycott Israel, to cut all ties with Israel, in all of North America.
Instead, those few people inclined towards solidarity with Palestine are begging the Democrats to love them. And the best way to get Democrats to love you is to shut up about Palestine and promise them your votes despite EVERYTHING.
You would free Palestine within one year if you were marching on City Councils and student governments demanding total boycott against Israel.
The Establishment will listen as soon as there is a loud, self-confident movement to boycott Israel.
Until then, the sound of occasional whining won't be enough to change anything.
When some university campuses start making the news with movements to boycott Israel, then things will change.
Isolated whining is not enough. The New Yorker couldn't care less.
Telling me to get out of the United States is not exactly the kind of "freedom" I was hoping to enjoy here.
But that is what you get, when you ally yourself with the "Patriots".
Would you have hung the very loudest and most determined opponents of the U.S. war in Vietnam, like protesters at Kent State and Jackson State, who were shot dead by the U.S. National Guard and the police? No one spent a day in jail for those kids' murders.
Would you have hung the loudest and most determined opponents of the U.S. war on Nicaragua, like Ben Linder -- who get shot dead by U.S.-backed contras? No one spent a millisecond in jail for his murder.
That kind of murderous white racism -- the kind that you can read in Ron Paul's newsletters-- is what you are allying yourself with, when you become a "hanging patriot".
As you say, you are not fighting for Arabs or Blacks, but for your own heavily-armed white tribe -- that thing which is called "Americans" among Klansmen and Republicans.
The BDS movement really needs thousands of idealistic, marching Arab American college students to lead it. Not old white racists who never cared a day in their life for Arabs.
My point is that you have tapped into a powerfully ugly nerve center in American political life: red-blooded, violent patriotism. (Tarring, feathering, lynching.)
That kind of big salute to the American flag, the American military, etc. is too closely tied into America's history of highly racist conquests and destruction of native people on every single continent.
That kind of patriotic appeal is poison to Arab Americans, because Arab-American flag-waving is only "rewarded" with the usual white-supremacist wars and deportations that have become so familiar to Arabs who have any contact with America.
Much better for all of us, including Arab Americans, to identify with Black people and their history of defiant self-assertion, defiant demands for human rights, in the face of this white racist beast which is called "patriotism".
Allying yourself to "patriots" is allying yourself to the Klan.
Ally yourself to a healthy defiance against racism instead.
When you say "tar and feather every traitor" to the United States, remember these things:
* Tarring and feathering was often fatal when it was actually done. Read about the tarring process and you'll see why.
* The United States has waged a direct genocidal war on Afghanistan for over a decade with the vote of Ron Paul, who is forever tied to his party (the party of racism), and to his own years of racist newsletters. You want to demand loyalty to that?
* There has been no mass media mention of any calls for Palestinian liberation from Ron Paul. There have been no calls for boycott against Israel from Paul.
--------------------------
* Read Ron Paul's campaign website at link to ronpaulmyths.com :
"MYTH: Ron Paul is anti-Israel.
"FACT: Ron Paul strongly supports Israel.
"Ron Paul strongly supports Israel's right to self-determination.
"Ron Paul voted to oppose a Congressional resolution condemning Israel for bombing Iraq's nuclear reactors.
"As President, Ron Paul would seek to remove billions in aid from Israel's enemies.
"Paul recently re-affirmed his support for Israel, explaining his belief that America should be Israel's 'friend' but not it's 'master.' He goes on to explain that America should "refuse any arms sales that would undermine Israel's qualitative military edge in the region."
-----------------
It is good to try and change the atmosphere in favor of BDS.
That's how the abolitionists won. They were always a scorned minority, until the Black population started escaping from slavery in the 1860's, during the Civil War.
This led to Black men joining the Union Army and defeating the Confederacy forever. The abolitionists helped Blacks and whites to imagine that Black people actually could and should be free.
BDS is doing that now for 300 million Arabs, who should be free-- but who are mostly still in bondage to various dictatorships and occupations supported by the U.S. and Israel.
Look, I'm thrilled that an ad says to spend our money at home, not on the Israeli military.
I personally prefer to say "Cut off the Billions to Israel, and spend it to Rebuild Detroit". With a photo of Israeli soldiers pointing their guns at Palestinian children (there are many of these photos).
I prefer to line up with Black America, which since the 1956 war has identified more strongly with the Arab world than any other segment of North America.
I prefer never to line up with flag-waving racists and their military. Never.
Loyalty to the American flag has a very bloody and racist symbolism. That flag is associated with so many genocides, so many openly racist massacres (think Vietnam, and Iraq, and the Congo, and Iran, and Mississippi).
Arab Americans are dying of loyalty to the American flag. It binds their mouth shut so they cannot cry out when Congress shovels another trillion towards another war in the Middle East (Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, and soon Iran.)
The American and Israeli flags represent exactly the same thing. They represent racist robbery against nonwhite humanity. That is the reason for the U.S.-Israel alliance. They really want the same thing.
I see you are are edging by millimetres towards BDS actually being demanded on campuses, loud and clear.
But I am not ready to celebrate yet. This London artwork is very creative, very nice.
But it's no substitute for marching into every student government, every local government, every sizeable newspaper, and demanding a total boycott of "Israel".
From 1960 through 1969, campus activists for civil rights and Black power faced much more hazardous obstacles. They paid the price so that we can advocate for BDS without facing more than the occasional hostile remark from a Zionist who is far more isolated than you might imagine.
And so you pay that comparatively small price -- still, it's a scary price to pay! Especially when actual professors and administrators give you the Glare of Death. Turn your back and walk away from them. If they could really harm you, they would have done it already. They can't do a damn thing.
You are paying a price so that next year's BDS activists will have a much easier time.
Thank you.
Austin,
Yes, it is fine for someone to write a play about the genuine lives of Palestinians from her own point of view. By the same token, Black Mississippi in 1964 was not 100% living in trembling terror of whites; many were sharecropping and living without any political dialogue.
But in 1964, you also had Nina Simone singing "Mississippi Goddam" (See link to en.wikipedia.org )
Where is the play or campaign, speaking in 2012 language, that expresses any heartfelt outrage like that, when it comes to Palestinians?
Where is the performer, where is the university group, that publicly says "Fuck Israel"?
This is part of a brilliant strategy of laughing our way to liberation.
Why push for boycott of Israel when you can just laugh at Fadwa's kooky aunt?
Laugh it up.
This BDS call comes only 9 years after the pioneering Wayne State University Student Council resolution for total divestment from Israel:
link to 4.bp.blogspot.com
Yes, a total divestment resolution against Israel.
Why not?
I hope that students nationwide will be planning the rapid introduction of bills to divest from Israel, before it has a chance to bomb Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, and God only knows where else.
Don't forget the total divestment resolution that the Wayne State University Student Council approved:
link to 4.bp.blogspot.com
It demanded total divestment against Israel.
Aim high.
Divestment at U.Mass.:
link to bdsmovement.net
--Hopefully much stronger resolutions, to clearly divest from Israel, are coming.
And so the newly elected Vice-President of the University of Michigan student government agrees that we must divest from socially irresponsible companies.
See today's Arab American News ,
at: link to arabamericannews.com
"The issue of divesting from companies that provide military support to Israel and other companies deemed unethical was brought before student government this past year and has ignited discussions on campus and editorials in the Daily.
"Hashwi said that he will strive to be a true representative of the student body while making all decisions, and that he will also not be afraid to express his own opinions.
" 'I believe the university must not invest in socially irresponsible and immoral companies and if the students agree with this logic, then that is what I am committed to advocating for.' "
The Methodist church will not be alone in divestment.
The newly elected Vice-President of the University of Michigan student government also says that the university must not invest in socially irresponsible companies.
See today's Arab American News ,
at: link to arabamericannews.com
"The issue of divesting from companies that provide military support to Israel and other companies deemed unethical was brought before student government this past year and has ignited discussions on campus and editorials in the Daily.
"Hashwi said that he will strive to be a true representative of the student body while making all decisions, and that he will also not be afraid to express his own opinions.
" 'I believe the university must not invest in socially irresponsible and immoral companies and if the students agree with this logic, then that is what I am committed to advocating for.' "
Wonderful letter from a University of Michigan student here:
link to michigandaily.com
It's on full view in today's 'Michigan Daily', serving 40,000 students.
It clearly condemns the "racist and illegal Israeli occupation, segregation and discrimination against Palestinians."
University of Michigan students are moving to the forefront of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
For those without speakers on their computer-- this video has no news in it.
Marc Ellis basically tries to reveal what he can while honoring the confidentiality rules of Baylor. So he can't really say anything.
We knew he was being railroaded because he's for the liberation of Palestine. This video basically reinforces that conclusion. But there's no real news in it.
Seeing Marc Ellis silenced is not a pretty thing. Getting beaten down by those who hold power over you isn't conducive to good activism. You basically surround yourself with lawyers, narrow your scope of vision, and put duct tape on your mouth.
Seeing Joseph Massad hunted for years was most unpretty. He survived. But he's not all over The Nation magazine, all over the New York Review of Books, like Edward Said was. He seems tucked away, out of the public view. Too bad.
Seeing Finkelstein go through the same kind of administrative lynching was also not pretty. And he didn't emerge from it as a better activist. He got narrower. Now he's ridiculing BDS.
Try to keep your voice raised for Palestine, for BDS, out in public. Don't get strangled in administrative hell.
University of Michigan students have today declared that "MichiganBDS invites all students to join us in demanding the University not serve as an accomplice to apartheid in Israel."
See their wonderful viewpoint published in the Michigan Daily today.
It's entitled "Boycott, Divest and Sanctions"
It's on the Web at: ily.com/opinhttp://michigandaily.com/opinion/viewpoint-divest-israel
Go BDS!
To Terryscott:
Finkelstein deserves credit for the books and other work he's done. He also deserves blame for trying to shoot down the only chance for mass actions in the United States against Israel-- that movement bears the timid name of "BDS".
When you hear someone say "BDS", they are marking themselves as fearful to just say "Boycott Israel". The acronym of "BDS" means nothing to the general public so it's like a camouflage for frightened activists.
BDS was the same movement (but much more self-assured) in 1967, '77, and '87 against Apartheid South Africa. It felt free to bluntly say "Boycott South Africa". Nice and clear.
BDS against Israel is much more timid and frail, because there is so little public defiance against the Israeli state. No one feels safe expressing that defiance -- except (thank goodness) last night at the Park Slope Co-op.
Too bad Finkelstein can't give these fearful BDS-ers some courage. Instead he attacks them for any kind of boycott action against Israel. What does he want them to do? Read his blog and weep quietly for Palestine?
Boycott Israel and scold Finkelstein.
Finkelstein actually threw his weight against BDS at the Co-op meeting last night:
See link to gothamist.com
" 'What is BDS?' asked one member, Norman Finkelstein, last night. 'I'm not going to be in a cult again.' (BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, an international movement against Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.) Finklestein and others would learn a lot about BDS during the three hour meeting..."
This frail BDS movement, carefully nurtured, has to withstand a lot of enemies, now including Finkelstein. What a shameful place in history awaits him. He contributed some fine books to the movement. Now he's doing his best to shoot it dead.
Great!
The same kind of BDS campaign should be on every campus!
Listen, I'm thrilled to see any public demand for sanctions against "Israel".
But I also feel an undertone to these ads that Palestinian life is worth saving IF AN ISRAELI SAYS SO TOO.
I don't detect any defiance against Israel in these ads. Just a kind of cooperative spirit of good will that is suited to a terrain of equally empowered fellow activists.
Palestine is under such a gigantic power imbalance, and that imbalance so drastically empowers the settlers, that I feel the tone of these ads is too sweet and untrue.
Tonight, March 20, 2012, two speakers asked the University of Michigan's Central Student Government (CSG) for a resolution demanding the immediate release of Hana Shalabi.
The CSG took no vote on the matter.
According to the national racist religion we call Americanism-- only American soldiers' lives really matter. Also pretty much any white American.
The concept that Palestinian life has any value at all? That's nowhere on the U.S. political spectrum. I propose putting it on the spectrum by demanding boycott resolutions against Israel.
It's a bit rich for "hophmi" to have such a good belly-laugh about the lack of Palestinians in the United States leading the BDS campaign. The Zionists have terrified them. The U.S. government has terrified them. Do you expect to see Palestinians marching through the U.S. campuses after such unremitting terror against them, their families back home, deportations, arrests, drone attacks, etc.?
It's a bit unfair to break the bird's wing and then laugh at it because it can't fly.
The sooner Palestinians are able to organize mass marches for boycott of Israel, the sooner "hophmi" will eat his words. He will wish for the good old days of 2012, the good old feeble BDS movement of today.
More than you ever wanted to know about the intimate South Africa - Israel alliance during the apartheid years--
link to tinyurl.com
--complete with evidence of the top Apartheid South African leadership practically hugged up with the top Israeli leadership.
Correction: It has been 64 years of military occupation, from 1948 to 2012.
Hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed in that 1948 destruction of Palestine.
If you are only against the "44 years of occupation", then you keep Israel-proper intact, with its hundreds of atomic bombs and thousands of tanks.
You already know that Israel will keep re-invading and terrifying Palestinians until it is abolished. Don't you?
I found the SNCC newsletter (June-July 1967) which condemns Zionist terror gangs, and demands freedom for Palestinians.
It's here (page 1):
link to tinyurl.com --click on it to enlarge it.
And here (page 2):
link to tinyurl.com
More proof that the Black liberation movement brought Palestine solidarity to the United States!
Thanks, Austin.
When Stokely was with SNCC, it published a huge 2-page article for Palestinian rights in its 1967 newsletter. This was an incredibly important development that put Palestine solidarity on the map in U.S. politics.
36 years later, the Wayne State University Student Council voted for total divestment against Israel:
link to tinyurl.com
That paved the way for other student governments to do the same. But they are all waiting for permission from liberal Zionists.
At least in Canada, one campus didn't wait:
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel have been approved by the University of Regina Student Union:
link to dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com
Thanks again, Austin, for the most encouraging article I've seen in a while. Wonderful graphic, too.
Gilad G's comments reflect the Zionists' imperative to always have a wartime situation.
Every single Palestine human rights event is converted into a police emergency, a wartime event, when the Zionists are able to accomplish that. This enables Zionists to commit quite a lot of injury against the Palestinians' side, and it absolves the Zionist side of blame-- because it was "war".
Thanks, Walid. What could be more clear?
The Zionists are naturally hostile to any public boycott or divestment action.
But anti-Zionists can get pretty hostile about it too.
They fear being associated with anyone who says the State of Israel must be boycotted out of existence (as happened with Apartheid South Africa.)
They want a more reconciliable approach. They want to look reasonable. Yeah-- but what is "reasonable" on the American political spectrum?!
They want to look reasonable to American Democrats. They want to look reasonable to Ron Paul Republicans. They want to look reasonable to the so-called Israeli peace movement.
So they really can't say BOYCOTT ISRAEL. They have to say boycott Sabra hummus-- but they fear to even do that. You see a meek murmur for boycotting Sabra hummus at DePaul, and then you see the murmur disappear.
At best, you see a selective divestment campaign at Berkeley, which inspired so many in 2010-- but as soon as they were vetoed by the student body President, they disappeared! The whole divestment movement vanished overnight and never returned to Berkeley. Poof!
And that was the high point of 2001-2012 BDS activism on American campuses.
So again, enjoy the Sabeel conference, but ask them if there will ever be any campus campaign for boycott or even divestment against Israel.